Recently a variety kinds of whipped dessert products have been developed and placed on the market. The conventional methods of manufacturing such kinds of dessert products can be categolized into two types as described hereunder.
In the method of first type, liquid material containing all the ingredients for an aimed dessert is whipped and then whipped material is subjected to gelling by the aid of gelling agent contained therein. In this method, since the quantity of ingredients having whipping capability is insufficient for the aimed products, a considerable quantity of emulsifier is required to be added thereto. This method may, however, spoil flavor, taste, and/or mouthfeel of the products.
In the method of second type, a first liquid material consisting only of the ingredients having whipping capability among all the ingredients of an aimed dessert is whipped, then a second liquid material containing a gelling agent and all the remaining ingredients of the aimed dessert is homogeneously mixed with the whipped material and finally they are subjected to gelling. Heretofore, carrageenan, furcellaran, agar and gelatin have been known as suitable gelling agents for whipped dessert products. Such gelling agents require, however, relatively higher gelling temperatures and mixing of said whipped material and said second liquid material must be made at a temperature higher than the gelling temperature of the gelling agent. However, when the mixing is made at a relatively higher temperature, air bubbles introduced into the whipped material tend to break during the mixing procedure and thus air bubbles kept in the final products are also decreased.
The inventors of the present invention have extended their efforts to study the solution of the difficulties encountered in the conventional methods. They found the fact that acceptable dessert products having good taste, flavour and mouthfeel as well as excellent bubble keeping capability can be prepared without adding a large quantity of emulsifier when a gelling agent consisting of two components which may form a gel upon mixing is utilized, and when one of two components of the gelling agent is included in a first liquid material containing at least a whipping ingredient among all ingredients of an aimed dessert, and the other of two components of the gelling agent is included in a second liquid material containing the remaining ingredients of the aimed dessert, and when after the first liquid material is whipped the second liquid material is mixed with the whipped material at a relatively lower temperature for gelling.
The present invention is based upon this discovery.